With so many cooking gadgets to choose from, the lines of what each one can do can become a little blurred, making it difficult to know which one you actually need in your kitchen.
This leads many of us to question whether these devices are one and the same, whether you can use one in the place of another, and whether they can cook the same types of foods just with modified settings.
With slow cookers and rice cookers, there’s this perception that they are very similar due to being classified as a single-use device that uses a “set it and walk away” cooking function.
So, are slow cookers and rice cookers one and the same?
While rice cookers are dedicated to cooking grains only, slow cookers have a lot more versatility in what they can cook. Beyond this, slow cookers and rice cookers use different types of heat, have different heat settings, and are designed to cook different types of foods at different speeds.
What’s The Difference Between a Slow Cooker and a Rice Cooker?
The main difference between a slow cooker and a rice cooker is the amount of heat used and the type of heat used in the cooking process. A slow cooker is going to use low temperatures that evenly spreads the heat across the food over a long period of time.
Whereas, a rice cooker uses rapid heat, bringing your food to a boil, before keeping it warm till serving time. Of course, a slow cooker is going to take a lot longer before the food is ready to eat, while a rice cooker is much faster at getting the job done. Here are some other distinct differences
Heat Settings
- A slow cooker generally has three heat settings – low, medium, and high. These settings range from 200 degrees (low) Fahrenheit to 300 degrees (high) Fahrenheit. The reason for this is cooking food at lower than 140 degrees Fahrenheit allows bacteria to grow in your food, which can cause some serious illnesses if eaten.
- A rice cooker doesn’t come with multiple heat settings. Instead, you will have one cook setting and one warming setting for basic rice cookers. If you have a more modern rice cooker, you may notice a few other cooking settings like “slow cook” but generally, the heat settings will remain fixed. Even if you do have a rice cooker that allows you to set the temperature to a precise number, the cooking function remains the same – to boil the food quickly.
Size Options
- Slow cookers are measured out in quarts. This can be a bit confusing for those who do not work in quarts as a measurement. So here is a quick and basic guide on the sizing.
- 1-3 quarts is going to be the smallest slow cooker you can buy. This is best for those who are living alone, are living in a couple, or do not make more than one meal at a time. This is also great for those who have no counter space available.
- 4-5 quarts is the ideal size for a family. This size is good to serve four people and can be used to make two meals at a time or a double batch. This is great for families who like to eat leftovers or want to minimally meal prep.
- 6-8+ quarts is the ideal size for a large family of 5-8 people. Cooking any type of meal in this large of a slow cooker is going to allow you to meal prep for the entire week or have a ton of leftovers if you are only cooking for a few people at a time.
- Rice cookers are measured out in cups. Now unlike slow cookers, where the quarts give you a good idea of how many you can feed with it, the cup size does not denote how many cups you can make with it. Rather, the cup size refers to the amount of rice that the device can take. So, if you buy a rice cooker that can take 2 cups of uncooked rice, that will make 4 cups of cooked rice. Generally, a rice cooker will come with a capacity of 2-10 cups.
Cooking Time Differences
- A slow cooker is going to take anywhere between two and ten hours depending on what you are making and how much of it you are making. Once the food is cooked, you can keep it available by switching the slow cooker to the warming function.
- A rice cooker will take anywhere between twenty and sixty minutes to make your rice. This is dependent on how much you are making in it. Small batches of rice will come to completion in no-time.
Can I Use My Rice Cooker as a Slow Cooker?
While rice cookers are not designed to be fully-functional slow cookers, they can be used as one if you don’t have a slow cooker on hand. The key with this though, is you have to have a rice cooker that has a “keep warm” setting, as this is what will allow your food to simmer and “slow cook” over time.
Almost all basic rice cookers will have two cooking settings, “cook” and “keep warm” while other, newer models, may have options for adjusting the temperature and slow cooking. Here is how it would work on a basic level.
- Place your ingredients into the rice cooker, making sure to estimate out the proportions as you do not want to overfill your rice cooker. Once the ingredients are in, close the lid and set the cooker to its normal rice-cooking cycle.
- After your rice cooker has reached boiling temperature, it will automatically switch to the “heating” setting. You want to make sure it goes to “warming”. On some rice cookers, these two settings are one and the same, so just make sure to double-check.
- Leave your food to simmer on the keep warm setting for as long as it takes to cook the food thoroughly. You may need to turn the heat up once or twice during the process, but generally, you want to keep the lid closed so that you don’t have to build heat up again.
If you are using a basic rice cooker, you will need to do some trial and error with various recipes to see how long they need to be left for, but generally, yes you can use your rice cooker as a slow cooker. If it has a slow cooking function on it, even better!
What Else Can You Cook In a Rice Cooker?
While rice cookers have this perception that they only cook rice, they can actually cook a lot more.
- You can cook all types of rice – long grain, whole grain, brown rice, white rice, basmati, etc.
- You can cook other types of grains like quinoa, lentils, and oats.
- You can cook beans (soak them first!) like soybeans, kidney beans, and pinto beans.
- You can cook mac and cheese!
- You can cook a pork roast by adapting your rice cooker to “slow cook” it.
- You can steam meats and vegetables. Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, squash, zucchini, fish, chicken, pork, and beef all work.
- You can boil eggs!
- You can make mashed potatoes.
- You can make soups and stews as well!
How Are Rice Cookers and Slow Cookers Best Used?
A slow cooker is best used if you want to cook your food while you are away from home or if you want to serve foods like pulled pork, soup, and stews away from home at potlucks and buffets. The slow cooker is a good choice for those who can plan ahead, as it takes quite some time to prepare a meal.
It’s best to prepare everything early in the morning and then let the slow cooker run for a good portion of the day. Some meats have to cook in the slow cooker for 4+ hours before they’re tender enough to fall apart.
A rice cooker, on the other hand, is best used for getting rice to come out perfectly. If you need food to stay warm for a few hours at a time and if you eat a lot of grains, a rice cooker is the way to go. The rice cooker is extremely easy to use for total beginners and the results will always come out perfectly if you follow the simple instructions.
Can You Cook Rice in a Slow Cooker?
We’re talking about two different appliances but it’s obvious that their functions overlap in certain areas. The rice cooker is able to do some of the things the slow cooker does and vice versa, but they’re still different and excel at different things.
The rice cooker’s name tells us what it can cook, and it sounds quite limiting, which it obviously isn’t as it can do other things too – but it’s incredibly good at cooking rice to perfection. But is the slow cooker also able to cook rice? How well?
You can cook rice in a slow cooker in a 2 to 1 ratio. Put one cup of rice and two cups of water in the slow cooker then let it run until the rice has soaked up all the water. Regardless of the liquid within the slow cooker, the rice-to-liquid ratio should be 2 to 1.
This way you can incorporate rice into other meals you’re cooking in the slow cooker, but it’s alright to only cook rice as well.
Is It Better To Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker?
What’s so special about this appliance that does something that I can do in a bunch of different ways? Did we really need another appliance?
The truth is that I’ve grown to love my rice cooker and I use it on a daily basis. For me, who’s into fitness and eats 6 meals every day, the rice cooker has been a lifesaver. Why?
Comfort. Yes, that word paints the entire picture, and explains what I purchased when I bought a rice cooker.
Being able to fill the rice cooker with enough rice for a couple of days (for those who eat smaller portions it will last longer) then simply turn it on and resume doing what I was doing without having to worry about burning the rice or the water boiling over.
The rice cooker then goes into heat-mode when it’s finished. During this phase, the rice cooker operates at lower temperatures to keep the rice heated without continuing to cook it. It’s during this phase that the last of the liquid is vaporized, creating the perfect texture.
Where am I doing while all of this is happening? Shouldn’t I be monitoring the rice cooker? No, the comfort provided by the rice cooker is partly that it doesn’t require very much maintenance, making it a very convenient solution for people with little time.
I usually start the rice cooker before I go out on my morning walks, then when I come back home I turn the appliance off and place the batch of rice by the window to cool down.
From start to finish, the process takes about 40 minutes. But I only spend 2 minutes preparing it and it always comes out great. That’s what I love about it.